How do you revive a wireless revolution?

Wireless charging may seem like the bleeding edge of tech magic, but the technology behind it is actually more than 125 years old. It was first ambitiously (almost maniacally) developed by Nikola Tesla, but, unfortunately, contemporary technology constraints held his vision back.

Roughly a century and the development of the microchip later, breakthroughs by Fulton Innovation, a technology development company and founding member of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), have made wireless charging practical, scalable, and, as a result, revolutionary. Today, Apple, Samsung, and Google phones all rest on Qi-enabled charging pads.

We met with the chief technology officer of Fulton Innovation to discuss how we could establish a global market for wireless power; specifically, how we could position Fulton’s offering—eCoupled intelligent wireless power technology—among a growing number of competitors and within the global technology din generated by megabrands in consumer electronics.

With a white paper and a handful of early prototypes, we built a strategy around the single keyword that we discovered differentiated between what Tesla’s tech was and what Fulton’s had become: “intelligent.” We focused on a heavy blend of influencer and experiential marketing methodologies and hit the ground running.

We sprinted from 2007 through 2012, working with media influencers such as Gizmodo, Technorati, and Fast Company, and development partners including Philips, Energizer, Nokia, and Texas Instruments to create an imagined future state where consumers would move about their increasingly mobile lives without tripping over power cords. We generated global awareness through the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and other high-profile international venues, and, with Philips, we established the WPC and the Qi wireless power standard, which was recognized as the global wireless charging specification at the 2018 CES.

This technology is now disrupting the $228 billion consumer electronics industry, with many other industries, including home appliances, automotive, furniture, aviation, and health care, coming online.